The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-05-06
WHAT SCIENTISTS THINK
The State Geologist Comments on Prof.
C0X's Remarks About Trenton Rock.
He Maintains that 1t Is Porous-Sensible
Suggestions from Professor Coulter Re-
garding the Natural-Gas Supply.

II was glad to read the observations of Pro
fessors Cox and Campbell on the subject of our
Indiana gas rock" said State Geoogist Thomp
yesterday. There cannot be doubt that
both the 'porous-rock' theory and the tract
ured rock theory are true. am surprised. how
ever. that any one should deny that Trenton
limestone is often very porous. The proof of
porosity is seeing the pores and with my eyes,
without the aid of magnifying glass. have
seen the pores in Trenton limestone. Having
seen the porous rock and not having seen assures
in the same ION account of it being from 800 feet
to 1000 feet under eround), I have therefore.
preferred to use the term porous. Science sticks
to known facts in preference to guessed at facts
know that Trenton limestone is often very porous
because the fragments brought up by the drill
have disclosed porous structure l do not
know that the rock is fractured, because the drill
cannot bring up fracture. Professor Orion,
State Geologist of Ohio. examined the Trenton
drillngs of that State and fo:snd them porous
| have examined the drill;ngs of this State and
found them porous Can Professor Cox sit in
New York sud change the facts? So far as am
concerned l shall not accent euesses in prefer
to facts However, think there is better
proof of the fracture fssure theory than either
Professor Campbell or Professor Cox gives |
believe that that. good part Of our ,ho Tran
ton limestone, and l have facts upon
which to base the belief. In former
remarks upon the geology of our great gas field
L have shown that the disturbance running in
broad irregular belt across northern Indiana
has shattered the Niagara limestone and has
rendered it a vast network of fissures show
ed this III describing the out-crop at Monon. and
Kentland and Delphi. and Professor Gorby, in
the last State report. details the same effect
there and at many other points. This disturb
npaa v1nt rfria1 iS w hn fact
that Lower Silurian fossils and fragments
have been forced up between the almost vertical
Niagara layers at Kentland. Now if the system
of assures, faults and small folds extends down
through the Lower Silurian. 1T affects the Tren-
ton limestone and these assures would serve
to aid in storing the gas. indeed, for all
anyone knows. they may store much the largest
part of it. Still nobody has seen the assures in
the Trenton, and at least Professor Ortcn and
myself have the pores in this same Trenton,
and am inclined to stick to the fact that is Wis
ible until the guess of Professors Cox and Camp
bell :1aterializes.
Zone of Professor Cox's paragraphs, fred at
Indiana from New York, had touch of humor
in it. at which l feel sure that genial and learned
scientist must smile when its significance dawns
upon him. In attempting to make the water gas
theory look plausible the Professor relates that
while he was State geologist he caught
some natural gas in glass tubes. and sealed it
fast therein. FOR the purposes of analysis.
One of the tubes of was left
unoticed in a drawer for years, and when
finally examined, 10, the gas had gone back to
that natural gas was water gas, that drop of oil
must have had rather an irrelevant look upon
mature elaboration! The fact is that in the
rock, well as in the glass tube OF Professor
Cox, the oil is always present to account for the
origin of the gas. From China and India all
round the globe to America, wherever there is
oil there is gas and wherever there is gas there
is oil; neither is found wholly separated from
the other. In China petroleum springs are side
by side with jets of natural gas. SO in India
In Pennsylvania the oil wells and gas
wells in the same rock, so in
Ohio, in Indiana ard Illinois, Ken
lucky, Virginia and New York. Professor Cox's
little glass tube stood by the facts and helped us
whom the Professor genially and wittily calls
philosophers-to maintain the wild and semi
scientific opinions of which Professor Campbell
broadly and literally speaks These are good
times in Indiana and we all are studying geol-
ogy, but it will be study without avail if
ignore facts and off after glitteriug theories
based on brilliant guesses flung to from
New York and other foreign lands. Patient and
comparative study of all the facts in sight is the
sheet anchor of science, and no mans opinion Is
of any value if that opinion is not based upon
knowledge of the facts and their correlatons.
Professor Coz is competent geologlst, but he
must come here and study the facts for
at least year before he afford to lay down
the law to men who. like Professor Or:cu and
myself. are in full possession of all the available
facts to date, even if we are inclined to be phi
losophers upon the subject of a porous Trenton
limestone. Nothing will delight me more than
to be put right when in error, but must be put
right by facts, not by guesses. / very
easily see good reason for Professor Coxs as
sertion that the strata of Indiana rock
disturbed. He is not in possession of the facts
If he had the facts / have them. he would
modify his opinion, because. thorough geologist
that he is, he would not contradict facts.
''But let us glance at the fissuretheory in con-
nection with this assertion of the absolutely
disturbed state of the Indiana rocks. Both
these theories Professor Coxs, but is it pos
sitle for both to be true2 In the first place, if
the Trenton limestone is not porous and all the
gas Is in assures. these assures must be vastly
extensive; but what made these extensive ifs
sures if there disturbance If the Tren-
ton limestone were cavernous, like the ST.
Louis limestone, as Professor Campbell asserts,
the drill would occasionally drop into Wyan-
dotte a Mammoth cave, at least into
siderable cavity; but such thing has happened
from the boring of the first well down to the
present time. The drill goes down into a firm,
gray magnetism limestone and the gas begins to
rise. the pressure increasing as the fluid accumu-
lates until the full rock weight is reached. If
Professor Campbell had given much thought
even to gas geology he would have hesitated to
compare very hard, often refractory magnes-
ian limestone to the easily decomposed ''caver-
nous" rock of the ST. Louis group. But let us
assume that the Trenton is cavernous, and that
only in the caverns thereof is the gas stored.
Why then is it that it often requires the period
of twelve or twenty-f four hours for the gas in
well TO reach its full pressure2 If the gas
.eaping from it's lair in a cavern this
would not be the 1t would ne
the case, however, il the fluid were filling the
we'll from a system of fine pores. or through the
minute crannies between the examinations of
texture like that of sandstone, and with but
small surface of escape. The notable better
ment of many wells in the Trenton limestone by
shooting. is largely due to the increased porous
area exposed by the resulting fracture.
However. the probability is that the Trenton
limestone greatly shattered bv the disturb
ance / have described and thus filled
less with system of thin fracture lines inter
laciug like those in the Niagara, at Monon and
elsewhere. and this system would. of course,
add TO the capacity of the reservoir"
The Gas Field.
GOOD PROSPECTS AT KNIGHTsTowN.
SpeciaI Q the Indianapolis Journe.